Under The Volcano Part 14

"Ha ha ha!"

"I am very sorry you cannot come me with."

"For she is the Virgin for those who have n.o.body with."

"n.o.body come here, only those who have n.o.body them with."

"--who have n.o.body with--"

"--who have n.o.body them with--"

TLAXCALA ROYAL CHAPEL.

Opposite to Francisco I Madero Park could be seen the ruins of the Royal Chapel, where the Tlaxcaltecan Senators, for first time, prayed to the Conqueror's G.o.d. It has been left only the portico, showing the Pope's s.h.i.+eld, as well as those of the Mexican Pontificate and King Carlos V. History relates that the construction of the Royal Chapel was built at a cost amounting to $200,000.00-- "A n.a.z.i may not be a Fascist, but there're certainly plenty of them around, Yvonne. Beekeepers, miners, chemists. And keepers of pubs. The pubs themselves of course make ideal headquarters. In the Pilsener Kindl, for instance, in Mexico City--"

"Not to mention in Parian, Hugh," said the Consul, sipping mescal, though n.o.body seemed to have heard him save a humming-bird, who at this moment snored into his stone retreat, whirred, jittering, in the entrance, and bounced out almost into the face of the G.o.dson of the Conqueror himself, Cervantes, who came gliding past again, carrying his fighting c.o.c.k. "In the Farolito--"

SANTUARIO OCOTLAN IN TLAXCALA.

It is a Sanctuary whose white and embellished steeples 38.7 metres high, of an overloading style, gives an imposing and majestic impression. The frontage trimmed with sacred Archangels, St Francis and the epithet of Virgin Mary statues. Its construccion is made out of carved work in perfect dimensions decorated with allegorical symbols and flowers. It was constructed on the colonial epoch. Its central altar is of an overloaded and embellished style. The most admirable is the vestry, arched, decorated with graceful carved works, prevailing the green, red, and golden colours. In the highest part inside of the cupula are carved the twelve apostles. The whole is of a singular beauty, not found in any church of the Republic.

"--I don't agree with you, Hugh. We go back a few years--" "--forgetting, of course, the Miztecs, the Toltecs, Quetzelcoatl--" "--not necessarily--"

"--oh yes you do! And you say first, Spaniard exploits Indian, then, when he had children, he exploited the half-breed, then the pure-blooded Mexican Spaniard, the criollo, then the mestizo exploits everybody, foreigners, Indians, and all. Then the Germans and Americans exploited him: now the final chapter, the exploitation of everybody by everybody else--"

Historic Places--SAN BUENAVENTURA ATEMPAM

In this town was built and tried in a dike the s.h.i.+ps used for the conquerors in the attack to Tenocht.i.tlan the great capital of the Moctezuma's Empire.

"Mar Cantabrico!

"All right, I heard you, the Conquest took place in an organized community in which naturally there was exploitation already."

" Well--"

.".. no, the point is, Yvonne, that the Conquest took place in a civilization which was as good if not better than that of the conquerors, a deep-rooted structure. The people weren't all savages or nomadic tribes, footloose and wandering--"

"--suggesting that had they been footloose and wandering there would never have been any exploitation?"

"Have another bottle of beer... Cam Blanca?" "Moctezuma... Dos Equis."

"Or is it Montezuma?"

"Moctezuma on the bottle."

"That's all he is now--"

TIZATLaN.

In this town, very near to Tlaxcala City, are still erected the ruins of the Palace, residence of Senator Xicohtencatl, father of the warrior by the same name. In said ruins could be still appreciated the stone blocks where were offered the sacrifices to their G.o.ds... In the same town, a long time ago, were the headquarters of the Tlaxcaltecan warriors...

"I'm watching you... You can't escape me."

"--this is not just escaping. I mean, let's start again, really and cleanly."

"I think I know the place." "I can see you."

"--where are the letters, Geoffrey Firmin, the letters she wrote till her heart broke--"

"But in Newcastle, Delaware, now that's another thing again!" "--the letters you not only have never answered you didn't you did you didn't you did then where is your reply--" "--but oh my G.o.d, this city--the noise! the chaos! If I could only get out! If I only knew where you could get to!"

OCOTELULCO.

In this town near Tlaxcala existed, long back, the Maxixcatzin Palace. In that place, according to tradition took place the baptism of the first Christian Indian.

"It will be like a rebirth."

"I'm thinking of becoming a Mexican subject, of going to live among the Indians, like William Blackstone." "Napoleon's leg twitched."

"--might have run over you, there must be something wrong, what? No, going to--"

"Guanajuato--the streets--how can you resist the names of the streets--the Street of Kisses--"

MATLALCUEYATL.

This mountain are still the ruins of the shrine dedicated to the G.o.d of Waters, Tlaloc, which vestiges are almost lost, therefore, are no longer visited by tourists, and it is referred that on this place, young Xicohtencatl harangued his soldiers, telling them to fight the conquerors to the limit, dying if necessary.

.".. no pasaron."

"Madrid."

"They plugged 'em too. They shoot first and ask questions later."

"I can see you."

"I'm watching you."

"You can't escape me."

"Guzman... Erikson 43."

"A corpse will be transported by--"

RAILROAD AND BUS SERVICE.

(MEXICO-TLAXCALA).

LinesMexico TlaxcalaRates Mexico-Vera Cruz Railroad Lv 7.30Ar 18.50Ar 12.00$7.50 Mexico-Puebla RailroadLv 16.05Ar 11.05Ar 20-00$7.75 Transfer in Santa Ana Chiautempan in both ways.

Buses Flecha Roja. Leaving every hour from 5 to 19 hours.

Pullmans Estrella de Oro leaving every hour from 7 to 22.

Transfer in San Martin Texmelucan in both ways.

... And now, once more, their eyes met across the table. But this time there was, as it were, a mist between them, and through the mist the Consul seemed to see not Granada but Tlaxcala. It was a white beautiful cathedral city toward which the Consul's soul yearned and which indeed in many respects was like Granada; only it appeared to him, just as in the photographs in the folder, perfectly empty. That was the queerest thing about it, and at the same time the most beautiful; there was n.o.body there, no one--and in this it also somewhat resembled Tortu--to interfere with the business of drinking, not even Yvonne, who, so far as she was in evidence at all, was drinking with him.

The white sanctuary of the church in Ocotlan, of an overloaded style, rose up before them: white towers with a white clock and no one there. While the clock itself was timeless. They walked, carrying white bottles, twirling walk canes and ash plants, in the neat fine better climate, the purer air, among the corpulent ash-trees, the stricken in years trees, through the deserted park. They walked, happy as toads in a thunderstorm, arm-in-arm down the four clean and well-arranged lateral avenues. They stood, drunk as larks, in the deserted convent of San Francis...o...b..fore the empty chapel where was preached, for the first time in the New World, the Gospel. At night they slept in cold white sheets among the white bottles at the Hotel Tlaxcala. And in the town too were innumerable white cantinas, where one could drink for ever on credit, with the door open and the wind blowing. "We could go straight there," he was saying, "straight to Tlaxcala. Or we could all spend the night in Santa Ana Chiautempan, transferring in both ways of course, and go to Vera Cruz in the morning. Of course that means going--" he looked at his watch "--straight back now... We could catch the next bus... Well have time for a few drinks," he added consularly.

The mist had cleared, but Yvonne's eyes were full of tears, and she was pale.

Something was wrong, was very wrong. For one thing both Hugh and Yvonne seemed quite surprisingly tight.

"What's that, don't you want to go back now, to Tlaxcala?" said the Consul, perhaps too thickly.

"That's not it, Geoffrey."

Fortunately, Cervantes arrived at this moment with a saucer full of live sh.e.l.lfish and toothpicks. The Consul drank some beer that had been waiting for him. The drink situation was now this, was this: there had been one drink waiting for him and this drink of beer he had not yet quite drunk. On the other hand there had been until recently several drinks of mescal (why not?--the word did not intimidate him, eh?) waiting for him outside in a lemonade bottle and all these he both had and had not drunk: had drunk in fact, had not drunk so far as the others were concerned. And before that there had been two mescals that he both should and should not have drunk. Did they suspect? He had adjured Cervantes to silence; had the Tlaxcaltecan, unable to resist it, betrayed him? What had they really been talking about while he was outside? The Consul glanced up from his sh.e.l.lfish at Hugh; Hugh, like Yvonne, as well as quite tight, appeared angry and hurt. What were they up to? The Consul had not been away very long (he thought), no more than seven minutes all told, had reappeared washed and combed--who knows how?--his chicken was scarcely cold, while the others were only just finis.h.i.+ng theirs... Et tu Brute! The Consul could feel his glance at Hugh becoming a cold look of hatred. Keeping his eyes fixed gimlet-like upon him he saw him as he had appeared that morning, smiling, the razor edge keen in sunlight. But now he was advancing as if to decapitate him. Then the vision darkened and Hugh was still advancing, but not upon him. Instead, back in the ring, he was bearing down upon an ox: now he had exchanged his razor for a sword. He thrust forward the sword to bring the ox to its knees... The Consul was fighting off an all but irresistible, senseless onrush of wild rage. Trembling, he felt, from nothing but this effort--the constructive effort too, for which no one would give him credit, to change the subject--he impaled one of the sh.e.l.lfish on a toothpick and held it up, almost hissing through his teeth: "Now you see what sort of creatures we are, Hugh. Eating things alive. That's what we do. How can you have much respect for mankind, or any belief in the social struggle?"

Despite this, Hugh was apparently saying, remotely, calmly, after a while: "I once saw a Russian film about a revolt of some fishermen... A shark was netted with a shoal of other fish and killed... This struck me as a pretty good symbol of the n.a.z.i system which, even though dead, continues to go on swallowing live struggling men and women!"

"It would do just as well for any other system... Including the Communist system."

"See here, Geoffrey--"

"See here, old bean," the Consul heard himself saying, "to have against you Franco, or Hider, is one thing, but to have Actinium, Argon, Beryllium, Dysprosium, n.o.bium, Palladium, Praseodymium--"

" Look here, Geoff--"

"--Ruthenium, Samarium, Silicon, Tantalum, Tellurium, Terbium, Thorium--"

"See here--"

"--Thulium, t.i.tanium, Uranium, Vanadium, Virginium, Xenon, Ytterbium, Yttrium, Zirconium, to say nothing of Europium and Germanium-ahip!--and Columbium!--against you, and all the others, is another." The Consul finished his beer.

Thunder suddenly sprang again outside with a clap and bang, slithering.

Despite which Hugh seemed to be saying, calmly, remotely, "See here, Geoffrey. Let's get this straight once and for all. Communism to me is not, essentially, whatever its present phase, a system at all. It is simply a new spirit, something which one day may or may not seem as natural as the air we breathe. I seem to have heard that phrase before. What I have to say isn't original either. In fact were I to say it five years from now it would probably be downright ba.n.a.l. But to the best of my knowledge, no one has yet called in Matthew Arnold to the support of their argument. So I am going to quote Matthew Arnold for you, partly because you don't think I am capable of quoting Matthew Arnold. But that's where you're quite wrong. My notion of what we call--"

"Cervantes!"

"--is a spirit in the modern world playing a part a.n.a.logous to that of Christianity in the old. Matthew Arnold says, in his essay on Marcus Aurelius--"

"Cervantes, por Christ sake--"

"Far from this, the Christianity which those emperors aimed at repressing was, in their conception of it, something philosophically contemptible, politically subversive, and morally abominable. As men they sincerely regarded it much as well-conditioned people, with us, regard Mormonism: as rulers, they regarded it much as liberal statesmen, with us, regard the Jesuits. A kind of Mormonism--"

"--const.i.tuted as a vast secret society, with obscure aims of political and social subversion, was what Antoninus Pius--"

"Cervantes!"

"The inner and moving cause of the representation lay, no doubt, in this, that Christianity was a new spirit in the Roman world, destined to act in that world as its dissolvent; and it was inevitable that Christianity--"

"Cervantes," the Consul interrupted, "you are Oaxaquenian?"

"No, senor, I am Tlaxcalan, Tlaxcala."

"You are," said the Consul. "Well, hombre, and are there not stricken in years trees in Tlaxcala?"

"Si, si, hombre. Stricken in years trees. Many trees."

"And Ocotlan. Santuario de Ocotlan. Is not that in Tlaxcala?"

"Si, si, senor, si, Santuario de Ocotlan," said Cervantes, moving back toward the counter.

"And Matlalcuayatl."

"Si, hombre. Matlaicuayatl... Tlaxcala."